3 hours northwest of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Challenge:
Wild Dog Dairy, a 1,375-acre family-owned dairy farm in Tasmania with 1,250 animals, was looking for a way to manage drafting during periods of family illness, without the need to hire expensive and potentially inexperienced contractors.
The existing process of manually controlling gates required a minimum of two people to always be in the dairy.
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Solution:
Draft-M8 was installed in August 2021 to identify fluoro paint and scratchie colours/patterns on the animals backs and automatically open gates that lead into different yards.
The product was extensively tested and refined to ensure it was safe, reliable and accurate.
Result:
Draft-M8 has been used for more than 12 months and has required minimal maintenance. The solution avoids the need for a second person in the shed for 10 weeks a year during the morning milkings, saving around 210 hours of labour and $8,000. Artificial insemination is now being done for longer, and the bulls are only in for the last 4 weeks. The dairy can now use more sexed semen and send more cows for export at no additional labour cost.
On top of this, Wild Dog Dairy is also using Draft-M8 for lame cows, drying off, and putting bulls in and out. It really is like always having someone standing at the gate waiting to help, all year. Like a mate (M8) you can rely on.
“Draft M8 has given us the main features we wanted from collars for only 10% of the price”
Josh Bishop, Dairy Farmer, Wild Dog Dairy, Tasmania Australia